TBS Baseball Schedule and Announcer Pairings

Question for everyone: How many of you watch the Sunday afternoon baseball coverage on TBS during the regular season? I've probably watched two baseball games on TBS during the regular season. Sorry but watching non-stop Red Sox, Yankees, and Phillies games aren't really my cup of tea. Well no surprise, but TBS once again will air a ton of Red Sox, Yankees, and Phillies games for this upcoming season. How do I know this? That's because they announced as much in this press release.

 “Sunday MLB on TBS” Returns with Multiple Appearances by the Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies

Schedule gets underway on April 3 with AL Champion Texas Rangers hosting the Red Sox

TBS announced today the first two months of its “Sunday MLB on TBS” schedule for the 2011 season.  The package, which includes match-ups on TBS every Sunday afternoon throughout the regular season, includes multiple appearances by the New York Yankees (May 1, May 8 and May 22), Boston Red Sox (April 3, April 17 and May 29) and the Philadelphia Phillies (April 10 and May 15).  The schedule will also feature a rematch of the 2010 ALCS when AL MVP Josh Hamilton and the Texas Rangers host Derek Jeter and the Yankees on May 8 at 2 p.m. (ET). 

So once again I won't be watching much baseball on TBS during the regular season. Look I get TBS can't run into the Sunday Night game on ESPN, but they can't at least show a couple of west coast games or gasp central division games? There must be some sort of time constraint issue they have to deal with so that's why they'll air pretty much every game on the East coast. Seriously, look at their April/May schedule. Besides a random Cubs/Dodgers game, they're going to air nothing buy Red Sox, Yankees, and Phillies games. And I'm sure this will continue throughout the season.

TBS also announced the announcers who'll be calling games for the network. Once again that old fossil Dick Stockton is back. Also TBS will air the NLCS this season after airing the ALCS last year and once again will air all of the LDS series'. TBS will also air an All-Star selection show just like they've done for the NBA over at TNT.

A rotation of play-by-play announcers will call the action, including Emmy winner Ernie Johnson, Dick Stockton and Brian Anderson.  The network’s play-by-play announcers will be paired with TBS analysts Ron Darling and John Smoltz.  Additionally, Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley and David Wells,three-time All-Star and owner of a perfect game, will provide color commentary for a select number of live game broadcasts as part of Sunday MLB on TBS, in addition to their studio work during the network’s exclusive coverage of the LDS and NLCS.  Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr. will be a part of the All-Star Selection Show studio team, as well as during the network’s coverage of the LDS and NLCS.

Darling is the only play-by-play announcer I can stand. I find Smoltz uninteresting and Wells try's to hard to be the baseball version of Charles Barkley. I'm disappointed TBS has decided to stick with EJ calling baseball games when it's obvious he's more suited for the studio. Everyone knows my feelings about Stockton and I haven't heard enough of Anderson to pass judgment. I wish though TBS would use more people like Anderson who call baseball games every day instead of using part-time baseball announcers like EJ or somebody who just wants to stay relevant like Stockton. 

Then again, why am I complaining about the announcers when I hardly watch TBS baseball games?